The Penn State Nittany Lions men’s basketball team has just two games left in their regular season and they are on the brink of a potential NCAA tournament bid thanks to [autotag]Jalen Pickett[/autotag].
The Nittany Lions currently sit just outside most bracketology projections and have a record of 17-12. Former transfer player turned star Jalen Pickett has played a major role in them finding what success they have had this year. His solid all-around play has the team and fans thinking about the NCAA tournament but should they also be thinking he can earn a player of the year award as well?
Bleacher Report published their player of the year rankings for college basketball and Pickett finds himself just out of their top ten.
“Pickett is our highest-ranked player from an unranked team, but certain exceptions need to be made when someone is averaging 16, seven, and seven,” Bleacher Report said about Pickett. “Even if he drops a bit off those paces and finishes at 15, 6.5, and 6.5, he’d be just the fifth player in the past three decades to pull it off…”
That elite company he is keeping with his statistical standing is the driving force for any discussion surrounding his worthiness for the award. While he most likely won’t win it, Bleacher Report backed up the Nittany Lion further by adding “in two games thus far against Michigan State and Illinois, Pickett is at 16.5 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 7.0 assists.”
Seeing that Pickett has performed well not against bad teams but rather the better teams makes him stand out even further. With two strong performances to end the regular season along with a strong Big ten tournament encore act and potential NCAA tournament birth then he has an even better chance.
Worth noting, Pickett is the third-ranked Big Ten player behind Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis and Purdue’s Zach Edey.
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